MEET THE TEAM

Joseph F Gerdes | President and CEO
Joe is a senior executive with nearly 30 years of experience spanning many facets of the financial industry landscape. He is a strategic and tactical business leader, with deep operations and client service acumen, supported by a distinguished record of progressive, inclusive, and decisive leadership spanning cross-functional, geographically diverse teams. He has successfully built, restructured, and grown large scale operations and service teams throughout his career. Joe’s experience emphasizes broker-dealer, wealth management and bank operating environments. He has held senior leadership positions at several prominent financial services firms, including Schwab, Morgan Stanley, E*Trade, Vanguard, and Goldman Sachs, by way of the Folio Investing acquisition. In addition to his role at Equity Advisor Solutions, Joe is the President and Chief Operating Officer of ETC Brokerage Services.
Joe is a graduate of Saint Peter’s University with a concentration in Business and Economics. Joe also holds the following FINRA certifications; Series 7, 63, 24, 27 and 99.

Mark Avers | Head of Business Development and Marketing
Mark is a part of the EAS executive team and is a senior level sales executive with over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. He has extensive experience working with registered investment advisors, brokers, and various financial institutions. Prior to joining the Equity Advisor Solutions management team, Mark served as the Vice President of National Sales at Shareholders Service Group where he directed all sales efforts to financial advisors. He has also held several other positions throughout his career including head of sales for the Advisor Services Division of Fiserv Investment Support Services, Director of Sales at Alternative Investment Partners, and Senior Vice President of National Sales for TD Waterhouse Institutional Services. Mark holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and a minor in Economics from Western New England College. Mark also holds the following FINRA certifications; Series 7, 63 and 24.

Stephanie Gutierrez | Head of Product Management and Integrations
Stephanie is a part of the EAS executive team and has worked in finance and technology since 1987. Starting her career at a boutique brokerage firm, Stephanie moved to First Trust Corporation (aka Fiserv Investment Support Services) where she spent over 20 years with the IRA custodian. Working on the technology side of business acquisitions and system conversions, Stephanie was promoted to manage business analysts and moved into Product Development in the 401(k) record keeping space, then to the Advisor Custody arena. Fiserv ISS was acquired by T.D. Ameritrade and Stephanie was instrumental in the conversion process. In 2010, she and Sean Gultig, started Equity Advisor Solutions. As VP of Product Management, Stephanie lead a team of analysts and developers to architect the product offering. Her most recent product launch was the Equity Cryptocurrency platform. For her efforts, she was recently awarded the Hispanic Product Manager of The Year award by Wealth Solutions Report. Stephanie is a Colorado native, she enjoys hiking, walking her dog and kayaking. Her studies were at Regis University, in Computer Information Systems.

Amy Thacker | Head of Advisor Relations and Client Service
Amy is a part of the EAS executive team and is a leader in the financial services industry with an extensive background in performance, productivity, and service improvement initiatives in financial services. In her previous role, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of First Affirmative Financial Network, an organization at the forefront of environmental, social, and corporate governance investing. Prior to this position, she served as a Vice President at T.Rowe Price in a services and operations capacity.
Combining her passions of financial well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion Amy has become a voice for women in the financial services industry. Amy holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from the University of Northern Colorado, and a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Regis University.

Edward Hable | Director, Advisor Relations
Edward is an executive, results-driven professional with extensive operation management experience in the financial services industry with a strong focus in business development. He is skilled at developing and executing targeted business initiatives, is a highly effective communicator and leader and has an extensive history in operations and client services. In his previous role, he served as the Director of Operations and as a Financial Consultant at Triumph Capital Management.
Edward graduated from the University of Colorado Denver Business School and maintains Series 65 and Series 63 licenses. As a Colorado Native, Mr. Hable enjoys spending his time outdoors in the mountains with his dogs, attending Denver sporting events, and world travel.

Lindsay Buchholzer | Director of Operations, EAS
Equity Trust Company
Lindsay has nearly 20 years of service and operational experience supporting the advisor community. Her team, based in Westlake, OH, provides service and operations management to our EAS clients. Lindsay’s initial role within the Equity family of companies started in 2016 with Equity Advisor Solutions as the Manager of Advisor Relations.
Prior to Equity, she worked at Curian Capital, building customized service teams and supporting process improvements. These roles have provided her with nearly 20 years of client service and operations experience in the financial space. She is a graduate of the University of Dayton and in her free time enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and is an avid Cleveland sports fan. Lindsay also holds a FINRA Series 6 license.